1. No brand, retailer or product is named
Editorial content on this site names no company, no brand, no retailer, no supplier and no product. Where a pack phrase is quoted in a shelf edge block, it is written generically to represent a style of wording found on shelves, and it is not copied from any actual pack. Where a real incident is described, it is described through the published inquiry or legislation and not through the businesses involved.
The reason is that naming a company means making a claim about it, and we are not in a position to verify claims about individual businesses. A publication that names companies without that verification is publishing an impression and calling it a finding.
2. No invented figures
We publish no price, market share, sales figure, growth rate, survey result or statistic that we cannot attribute to a named public source. Where a question is normally answered with a number we cannot verify, we describe the mechanism instead and say that the figure is not something we can stand behind. Every table on this site that presents a structure rather than a measurement says so in its footnote.
3. No nutrition, dietary or clinical advice
We describe how food information is regulated. We do not describe what anyone should eat, we do not classify foods as good or bad, and we do not use the language of virtue or shame about food. Where a subject reaches diet, allergy, intolerance or a medical condition, we stop and point to the NHS or to a registered dietitian, who can take account of an individual's circumstances in a way that a publication cannot.
4. No rankings of businesses
We publish no ranking, no best-of list and no rating of any company. The trade register is alphabetical, is marked as paid on every entry, and carries no score, badge, comment or order of merit. We have not audited anyone's work, and an ordered list without an audit is an opinion dressed as a conclusion.
5. No food photography, deliberately
There is no photograph of food anywhere on this site. Every image is of packaging and retail material: unprinted board, corrugate, label stock, film, shelf rail, pallets, crates, weighing platforms, conveyor seams, cold steel.
This is a deliberate editorial decision and it follows from the subject. Styled food imagery is one of the most effective persuasion techniques in food marketing, and it is one this publication exists to explain. Using it here, even decoratively, would apply the technique while describing it, and would place a thumb on the scale of every judgement a reader makes about the food we write about. The technique is described in full in how food photography and styling shape what you expect.
6. Sources you can check
Every article cites public sources: the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, Defra, the food information regulations, the Food Safety Act 1990, the ASA and the CAP and BCAP codes, Trading Standards, the CMA including the Green Claims Code, the DMCC Act 2024, the National Food Crime Unit and the NHS. We cite instruments and institutions rather than secondary summaries, and we do not cite a source we have not satisfied ourselves exists.
7. Links
Outbound links on this site go to regulators, legislation and official guidance, and they are marked nofollow. There are no affiliate links anywhere on this site, and there is no commercial link of any kind in any article. Every article carries a block saying so.
8. What money cannot buy
Paying for a register entry or a newsletter sponsor line buys exactly what is described on those pages and nothing else. It does not buy editorial mention, a link, a legal status verdict, sight of anything before publication, a veto, the removal of accurate material, or a position in any list. The criteria and rates page states this and also publishes what we refuse to list at any price.
9. Language
We do not use the words clean, guilt or detox approvingly about food, and we do not imply that a food is virtuous or shameful. Those words import a judgement that this publication is not entitled to make and that has no basis in any of the rules we describe.
10. Corrections
Corrections are published with a visible note rather than made silently. Accurate material is not removed on request. If you believe something here is wrong, tell us with the reference and the correction you propose.